{"id":356108,"date":"2026-06-11T11:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T11:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/356108\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T11:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T11:15:08","slug":"2-prominent-california-congressional-races-will-test-democrats-redrawn-us-house-map","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/356108\/","title":{"rendered":"2 prominent California congressional races will test Democrats\u2019 redrawn US House map"},"content":{"rendered":"

Republican-turned-independent\u00a0Rep. Kevin Kiley<\/a>\u00a0and former Democratic state Sen. Richard Pan advanced to the November election Tuesday in a Northern California congressional district while a progressive Democrat advanced to face Republican\u00a0Rep. David Valadao<\/a>\u00a0in a Central Valley one.<\/p>\n

The races set up significant tests of whether\u00a0Democrats\u2019 redraw of California\u2019s House maps<\/a>\u00a0will pay off for the party.<\/p>\n

Several other major U.S. House races also were set Tuesday as California\u2019s protracted vote count from the state\u2019s June 2 primary ground on. Two Republicans will face each other in a Southern California House district drawn to end one of their careers. And a Sacramento seat will become a high-profile generational clash between two Democrats.<\/p>\n

But the most attention was on two districts in the vast midsection of the state that will help determine whether Democrats can claim victory in California\u2019s role in the mid-decade redistricting wars. Both will be crucial to determine which party controls the U.S. House in this year\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n

\"\"Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., speaks during an election night event Tuesday, June 2, 2026, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo\/Rich Pedroncelli)<\/p>\n

\"\"FILE \u2013 Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., listens to testimony as the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight holds a field hearing on violent crime in Charlotte, N.C., Sept. 29, 2025. (AP Photo\/Nell Redmond, File)<\/p>\n

\"\"Sacramento council member Mai Vang, who is running for Congress, holds a child during an election night party in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday,, June 2, 2026.(AP Photo\/Rich Pedroncelli)<\/p>\n

\"\"FILE \u2013 U.S. Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif., poses for a photo in Washington on Jan. 6, 2015. (AP Photo\/Jacquelyn Martin, File)<\/p>\n

Democrats hope to pick off a perennial GOP target in the Central Valley<\/p>\n

Progressive Randy Villegas, a political science professor and school board member, on Tuesday beat the favored pick of establishment Democrats, moderate Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains, to advance to the November election against Valadao, a perennial target whose district Democrats redrew to shift further to the left.<\/p>\n

Democrats narrowly beat Valadao in their 2018 wave, only to see him win back the seat in 2020. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee threw its weight behind Bains, but Villegas won the primary and will test whether progressives or moderates are best positioned to face the resilient Republican.<\/p>\n

\u201cVoters in the Central Valley have spoken and they have declared that the Valley is not for sale,\u201d Villegas said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Republicans had hoped to face Villegas.<\/p>\n

\u201cSocialist Randy Villegas clawed his way out of a bruising Democrat primary by sprinting to the far left and embracing the same failed policies that made California unaffordable for working families,\u201d said Christian Martinez, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, in a statement.<\/p>\n

An independent hopes to keep Democrats from winning redrawn district<\/p>\n

For a few days after last week\u2019s primary, California\u2019s 6th District near Sacramento was a possible warning sign for Democrats, as Kiley and\u00a0a long-shot Republican<\/a>\u00a0who ran on peace in the Mideast held the top two slots in the nonpartisan primary. But the state\u2019s slow but regular tally of late Democratic mail ballots catapulted Pan onto the November ballot.<\/p>\n

Democrats broke up Kiley\u2019s conservative Northern California district, so the congressman opted to run in the new, Democratic-leaning district, left the GOP and became a vocal opponent of partisan redistricting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis race will be a choice between the extreme partisan politics that have made California the most unaffordable state in the country, and the independent leadership that allows our local communities to thrive,\u201d Kiley said in a statement.<\/p>\n

California Democrats scrambled their map to counter gains Republicans made in Texas and elsewhere after President Donald Trump called for the GOP to create as many conservative seats as possible in its bid to hold onto the House of Representatives in November.<\/p>\n

California\u2019s 52 House races provided a miniature of national trends. That included the fallout from redistricting ahead of this year\u2019s midterm elections, this time with Democrats redrawing the map, the generational battle among Democrats and questions of whether moderates or liberals are better positioned to win in swing districts.<\/p>\n

New districts set up clashes between members of the same party<\/p>\n

In more fallout from redistricting, Republican Rep. Young Kim on Tuesday advanced to the November election. She will face fellow Republican Rep. Ken Calvert after Democrats drew them both into a single district, guaranteeing that one would not return to Congress next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThroughout this campaign, we made the case that after more than three decades in Washington, it is time for fresh conservative leadership, and I look forward to continuing that conversation with voters in the months ahead,\u201d Kim said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Calvert replied in his own statement: \u201cVoters throughout the district recognize I\u2019m an effective member of Congress with a history of delivering results, cutting taxes and making life more affordable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also on Tuesday, a major generational Democratic clash was set up as Sacramento City Councilwoman Mai Vang advanced to face longtime incumbent Rep. Doris Matsui on the November ballot.<\/p>\n

The 81-year-old congresswoman has held the Sacramento-based seat since the death of her husband, former Rep. Bob Matsui, in 2005. Bob Matsui had represented the district since the 1970s.<\/p>\n

Vang, 41, is one of a slew of Democrats across the nation mounting an explicitly generational challenge in the wake of Joe Biden\u2019s presidency.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are tired of leaders who answer to their biggest donors instead of the families they represent,\u201d Vang said in a statement after the race was called. \u201cThe squeeze on working families doesn\u2019t check your party registration \u2014 and neither will I.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matsui released her first ad of the general election Tuesday night, focusing on a local mother whose son had muscular dystrophy and who praised Matsui for legislation funding therapies for the disease.<\/p>\n

Veteran Democrats survive challengers as others vie to replace Pelosi<\/p>\n

Two other veteran House Democrats in California also made it past younger challengers to the November ballot. Rep. Brad Sherman, 72, a 15-term congressman representing part of Los Angeles, will face a Republican in the fall. Mike Thompson, 75, is seeking his 13th term in a Northern California district.<\/p>\n

In San Francisco, a wealthy progressive challenger was unable to crack the top two slots to fill retiring Rep. Nancy Pelosi\u2019s seat. Instead, state Sen. Scott Wiener and city Supervisor Connie Chan will face off to replace the former House speaker.<\/p>\n

The 7th District seat held by Matsui is considered a safe one for Democrats, but was redrawn as part of the party\u2019s bid to add five more U.S. House seats elsewhere. Voters signed off on the changes with a constitutional amendment last year.<\/p>\n

Democrats initially were concerned about getting locked out of the general election in a San Diego-area seat under the state\u2019s primary system, which sends the top two vote-getters to the November ballot regardless of party. But San Diego City Councilwoman Marni von Wilpert managed to emerge from a large field of other Democrats and will face Republican Jim Desmond, a San Diego County supervisor.<\/p>\n

Slide 5 of 5PreviousNext<\/p>\n

Sacramento council member Mai Vang, who is running for Congress, holds a child during an election night party in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday,, June 2, 2026.(AP Photo\/Rich Pedroncelli)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Republican-turned-independent\u00a0Rep. Kevin Kiley\u00a0and former Democratic state Sen. Richard Pan advanced to the November election Tuesday in a Northern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,989,13,991],"class_list":["post-356108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-elections","tag-politics","tag-redistricting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}